Guidelines Released for 2024-2025 Season
The long-awaited USA College Curling Guidelines for the 2024-2025 season have arrived! Much remains the same, but below you’ll find a summary of the changes that have been made. Please be sure to read the entire document as well; the summary should not be used as a substitute, but rather a guide.
Firstly, the region formerly known as the Emerging Region has been rebranded as the West Region. Instead of automatically getting the considerations formerly associated with the Emerging Region (i.e., being able to count points from community non-college leagues), schools will apply annually for the Extra Points Waiver. This waiver functions the exact same as being deemed Emerging in previous years, except you do have to fill out a (quick!) form. The applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the College Curling Committee, and some reasons for a school to be granted the Extra Points Waiver are as follows: relative lack of potential competition, complete lack of transportation, or being a service academy. League play points also increased to two points for a win and one point for a loss, in order to match the points schools can receive from Match Plays.
Very importantly, you are now required to submit at least a rough draft draw schedule TWO WEEKS before the start of your bonspiel. You MUST obtain committee approval prior to sending the draw schedule to participating teams.
The way points are awarded has been streamlined. Participating in a bonspiel, no matter the outcome, will still net schools 4 points for one team and an additional 2 points for a second team. As for performance points, “teams earn 1 point for every game they win during the bonspiel. First place (winners of the A/1st event) earn an additional 4 points. Second place (runners-up of the A/1st event) earn an additional 3 points. Third and fourth place (winners and runners-up of the D/4th event, typically) earn 2 points. Any other teams with one loss or less that do not fall into the aforementioned four categories earn an additional 1 point.” This will result in similar results, but hopefully an even easier to understand process.
ResultPointsParticipated in bonspiel4 for 1st team, 2 for second teamFirst place (A/1st event winner)4Second place (A/1st event runner up)3Third and fourth place (D/4th event)2Any other team with 0 or 1 losses1
Match Play win2Match Play loss1
USA Curling memberships themselves look the exact same as last year, and are obtained the same way. The only change is that we are asking schools to register as USA Curling members earlier this year. From the guidelines: “All players who participate in USA College Curling events between February 12, 2024 and November 30, 2024 MUST be USA Curling members by November 30, 2024 at 11:59 pm for their points to be eligible. All unregistered players who participate in USA College Curling events between December 1, 2024 and February 9, 2025 MUST be registered by January 31, 2025.” This is to avoid a membership registering crunch in February before nationals. To further incentivize teams to register early, a team’s points will not appear on the standings until their active players have registered. Membership information and guides will be released shortly.
Match Plays (aka Head to Heads) are also staying incredibly similar, with two minor changes: no Match Play points will be accepted from a host-facility 1 day post or prior a registered bonspiel event at the same facility. Secondly, a player can only appear on one Match Play roster per day.
These changes and improvements were made as a direct result of the committee interacting with the College Curling community. Our goal is to make College Curling the best it can be, and hearing your input is a critical part of making that happen. We thank everyone who shared their thoughts, questions, and concerns last season and encourage you to continue sharing them into 2025!
Good Curling!
